In the interview, a Der Spiegel reporter asks Church, “And the surrogates would be human, right? In your book you write that an ‘extremely adventurous female human’ could serve as the surrogate mother.”

To which Church said, “Yes. However, the prerequisite would, of course, be that human cloning is acceptable to society.”

His response was widely misinterpreted to mean he was actively seeking a woman to serve as surrogate for a Neanderthal clone.

According to the Boston Herald, Church has since clarified the statement, “I’m certainly not advocating it,” Church said. “I’m saying, if it is technically possible someday, we need to start talking about it today.”

In an interview with Fox News he further said, "We have no projects, no plans, we have no papers, no grants," to clone a Neanderthal.

Of the viral confusion surrounding his statement, Church said, “I’m not going to run away… I want to use it as an educational moment to talk about journalism and technology.”